Strings as sigma models and in the tensionless limit
arXiv:0705.2346
Abstract
This thesis considers two different aspects of string theory, the tensionless limit of the string and supersymmetric sigma models. The tensionless limit is used to find a IIB supergravity background generated by a tensionless string. Quantization of the tensionless string in a pp-wave background is performed and the tensionless limit is found to commute with quantization. Further, the sigma model with N=(2,2) extended world-sheet supersymmetry is considered and the requirement on the target space to have a bi-Hermitean geometry is reviewed. It is shown that the equivalence between bi-Hermitean geometry and generalized Kahler follows, in this context, from the equivalence between the Lagrangian- and Hamiltonian formulation of the model. Moreover, the explicit T-duality transformation in the Hamiltonian formulation of the sigma model is constructed and shown to be a symplectomorphism. Under certain assumptions, the amount of extended supersymmetry present in the sigma model is shown to be preserved under T-duality. Further, by requiring N=(2,2) extended supersymmetry in a first order formulation of the sigma model an intriguing geometrical structure arises and in a special case generalized complex geometry is found to be contained in the new framework.
PhD Thesis, viii+127 pages